Ohio State Department of Physics alumni magazine 2006

Physics Dear Alumni and Friends, As I write this letter, the holiday season has just passed, so let me begin by taking this belated opportunity to wish you all a Happy New 2006.

I hope you all enjoy this 2005 edition of Ohio State Physics, yet another fine package put together by editor Melissa Weber and associate editor Ben Lewis.

We began moving into our stunning new Physics Research Building last February 1, but due to problems with some sophisticated systems in the laboratory wing, about a dozen experimental operations will remain in Smith William Saam, chair, Laboratory for a few more months. The official Department of Physics dedication of the building took place this past November 2 (see page 32).

Hiring of new faculty for 2004-05 was spectacularly successful with seven new faculty, swelling our ranks to 59. Jim Beatty joined us as a full professor, our first hire in experimental particle astrophysics. Full professors Nandini Trivedi and Mohit Randeria, our first faculty married couple, add substantially to our ranks in condensed matter theory, as does assistant professor Julia Meyer.

Jay Gupta, assistant professor in condensed matter experiment, adds important strength to our efforts in nanoscale physics.

Two of our new junior hires in theory have already won substantial national funding awards. John Beacom, who focuses on theoretical astrophysics, won a National Science Foundation Career Award, and Yuri Kovchegov, a nuclear theorist, won a Department of Energy Outstanding Junior Investigator Award.

Two additional faculty have been added this past fall. Andrew Heckler joins us as an assistant professor in physics education research. Andrew, who received his Ph.D. in theoretical astrophysics, now focuses on cognitive origins of student misconceptions about physical phenomena. Michael Poirier officially joined us in October, but he is on leave of absence until this coming June at Northwestern University while he finishes up some postdoctoral work in experimental biophysics. He recently won a prestigious Burroughs Wellcome Career Award in Biomedical Sciences. His story will appear in the next issue of Ohio State Physics.

You may recall that the APS Committee on the Status of Women in Physics visited our department in October 2003, writing a report praising us for having an excellent climate for women. Their encouragement plus that of Ohio State president Karen Holbrook, Provost Barbara Snyder, together with the strong support of Dean Freeman were key in our successful efforts to add women to our faculty for the 2004-2005 year.

Our 2005 Distinguished Alumni Award was presented to David Vernier (B.S. 1969), who, together with his wife Christine, founded Vernier Software and Technology, located in Beaverton, Oregon. I just returned from visiting them at their company, a truly delightful experience. This is a company that was very

recently recognized by the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Oregon Business Journal with the 2005 Outstanding Philanthropic Corporation Award and that has been chosen as one of Oregon’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” the past seven consecutive years.

Faculty, student, and staff awards are again highlighted in the news sections of this magazine, starting on page 6.

During academic year 2004-2005 30 new bachelor’s of physics (24 in physics and six in engineering physics) left our doors, placing us at 17th in the nation. Our students are going on to graduate school in physics as well as in areas as diverse as entomology, physical chemistry, nuclear engineering, mechanical engineering, actuarial science, education, and electrical engineering, while others are going into the private sector. We also graduated eight double majors in physics and in areas such as anthropology, math, astronomy, and criminology.

During the same period, we graduated 14 new Ph.D.s, coincidentally the same number as last year, who have found jobs in areas as diverse as the semiconductor industry and the national security arena in addition to postdoctoral positions at international laboratories and other universities.

The 2005 Alpheus Smith Lecture was presented by Frank Wilczek, a co-winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics, and the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at MIT. He presented an excellent, thought-provoking lecture titled m=E/c2: The Origin of Mass (see page 2).

Our efforts in outreach to the community at large continue at a high level. Note in particular the work of our undergraduate majors at the Ohio State Fair and the story on Linn Van Woerkom’s venture into physics on television via Physics on the Edge.

Annual events in the Department continue to foster our community of scholars. The Winter Party was recorded on film for posterity and is displayed within these pages.

In closing, I report recent departures. Bunny Clark retired at the end of this past September. You will not be surprised to learn that she is as active as ever in national physics affairs and she continues to chair our Public Relations Committee. Don Larson retired from the Electronics Shop last spring after a long and productive career. Professor Emeritus Carl Nielsen passed away on May 23, 2005. His contributions to the department were many and valued.

I invite you all to visit the department to see the spectacular new Physics Research Building.

With best wishes,

William F. Saam Professor and Chair

2005 Smith Lecture The Smith Lecture began in 1960 and honors Alpheus Smith, former chair of Ohio State’s Department of Physics and dean of the Graduate School. The lecture is funded by a gift from the Smith family and is given yearly to a physicist renowned not only for his or her scientific achievements but also for the ability to communicate scientific breakthroughs to the general public. Wilczek is the 20th Nobel Prizewinner to give the lecture.

Frank Wilczek presents the 2005 Smith Lecture.

The Stuff that Atoms and Nobels Are Made Of

The equations that describe mass and energy are similar to those that describe the workings of musical instruments, he pointed out. It’s

the energy of quarks vibrating in a stable pattern that causes the mass—an effect he called “the highest form of musicality.”

—by Pam Frost Gorder

It’s not surprising that Frank Wilczek was naked and

dripping wet when he found out that he’d won the Nobel Prize; the 5:30 a.m. call from Stockholm pulled him out of the shower. It may be more surprising that his wife felt compelled to write about it on the Web. Wilczek, a MIT physicist, came to Ohio State April 26, 2005, for the Alpheus Smith Lecture, an event sponsored annually by the Department of Physics. While the audience may have heard part of his story, anyone can read more details in his wife Betsy Devine’s “blog” at http:// betsydevine.weblogger.com/newsItems/viewDepartment$nobel.

“Wow and super-wow,” the October 5 entry begins. “So this morning the phone woke me up at 5:30 and it was a lady with a beautiful Swedish accent. Frank was already in the shower, but he got out and dripped all over the floor while she informed him that he and his thesis advisor David Gross, and a third physicist named David Politzer, just won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics! … Frank Wilczek rulez!”

Wilczek’s journey to the Nobel began in 1973, when scientists knew that the protons in atomic nuclei were made of even smaller particles

2005 Smith Lecture

called quarks, but nobody understood the force that held quarks together. He and his colleagues were the first to suggest that quarks were drawn together by a previously unknown kind of charge that forms what is called the “strong nuclear force.”

In the 1980s, Wilczek and his wife co-wrote Longing for the Harmonies: Themes and Variations from Modern Physics in which they used music as a metaphor to draw connections between the strong nuclear force and other concepts in physics. Wilczek built on those themes during his Smith Lecture, when he told the packed Hitchcock Hall auditorium how quarks, which are essentially massless particles, could form all the mass in the universe—the “stuff ” of life as we know it. The key, described in Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2, is energy.

Classical physics offers no concept of objects without mass, he said, but Einstein suggested energy could be created by mass, and vice versa. The equations that describe mass and energy are similar to those that describe the workings of musical instruments, he pointed out. It’s the energy of quarks vibrating in a stable pattern that causes the mass—an effect he called “the highest form of musicality.”

“His lecture was a highlight even among our other Smith Lectures,” says Ulrich Heinz, the physics professor who recruited Wilczek for the visit. William Saam, chair of the department, agrees. “Frank Wilczek illuminated one of the deepest mysteries of nature, making the origin of the masses of ordinary objects accessible to the public,” he says. “His talk attracted a crowd of nearly 600, perhaps the largest audience in the history of the Smith Lecture.”

The Smith Lecture began in 1960 and honors Alpheus Smith, former chair of Ohio State’s Department of Physics and dean of the Graduate School. The lecture is funded by a gift from the Smith family and is given by physicists renowned not only for their scientific achievements but also for their ability to communicate their scientific breakthroughs to the general public.

Wilczek is the 20th Nobel Prize winner to give the lecture, and the substance of his talk was particularly important to physics as a whole. That’s because he, Gross, and Politzer did more than explain the strong nuclear force. Their ideas meshed perfectly with what physicists already know about two other forces, the weak nuclear force and electromagnetism. Scientists have long sought to explain all four known forces in the universe with a single set of interwoven equations. The work of Wilczek and his colleagues suggests a single “Theory of Everything” is indeed possible. Only one force, gravity, remains unconnected to the other three. Countless physicists are working on it. But that’s the stuff that other Nobels are made of.

Wilczek during his lecture m=E/c2: The Origin of Mass

Scientists have long sought to explain all four known forces in the universe with a single set of interwoven equations. The

work of Wilczek and his colleagues suggests a single “Theory of Everything” is indeed possible.

2005 Distinguished Alumni Award

(from left) William Saam, Department of Physics chair; Richard Freeman, College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences dean; Sherry Poston, stepdaughter of 2004 Distinguished Alumni Award winner Forrest Biard; Sherwood Fawcett, 2003 Distinguished Alumni Award winner; David Vernier, 2005 Distinguished Alumni Award winner; Christine Vernier, Vernier Software & Technology CFO; and Jacqueline Royster, Colleges of the Arts and Sciences executive dean.

On May 26, 2005, David Vernier became the seventh recipient of the Department of Physics Distinguished Alumni Award and the first to receive the award in the new Physics Research Building.

Department of Physics chair William Saam, College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences dean Richard Freeman, and Colleges of the Arts and Sciences executive dean Jacqueline Royster made remarks at the ceremony prior to Vernier accepting his award.

During his speech, Vernier thanked the department for hosting his wife Christine and

David Vernier —

Distinguished Alumni Award him and giving them an opportunity to explore the Ohio State campus. “Christine and I were very glad that we could have a small part in this great new Physics Research Building,” he said. “I had a great time at Ohio State, got a good education, great experience, and, most important, met my wife.”

After showing the audience lab notebooks and textbooks

from his Ohio State physics classes, Vernier mentioned some of his memories from his days on campus, including using a calculator for the first time, only once, on the top floor of Smith Lab during his senior year (1969), and taking one computer class, with punch cards using Fortran. Vernier remarked that he was able to get by financially with a small government

scholarship and working hard in the summer. That allowed him not to need a job during the school year, which he said made a huge difference.

Vernier graduated with a B.S. in physics in 1969. After graduation, he taught physics and physical science at an innercity Cleveland high school.

From the start of his career, Vernier’s teaching style involved lots of labs and demonstrations.

In 1973, he and Christine moved to Oregon. He received his M.S. from Oregon State University in 1975, then accepted a position at a suburban Portland

2005 Distinguished Alumni Lecture high school, where he was able to teach physics almost exclusively. When small computers first became available for home use, in the late 1970s, Vernier started using them and bought an Apple II. He quickly saw a chance to use the computer in his demonstrations. Vernier’s physics classes were popular with the students because he had them do lots of hands-on activities, often using computers.

In the summer of 1981, Vernier started selling his Apple II physics programs to other physics instructors around the country. After a few years, this software business became a full-time job for him and Christine. Now the company employs about 70 people, and it is well known among science teachers around the country.

What started out as a small physics software company has grown into one that develops and sells data-collection software and hardware for physics, chemistry, biology, middle school science, and, most recently, elementary science. Vernier Software & Technology has received numerous growth awards and has been named “One of the Best 100 Places to Work in Oregon” for the last seven years.

Laura Greene accepts the 2005 Distinguished Alumni Lecturer award from department chair William Saam.

Laura Greene explains high-temperature superconductivity.

High-Temperature Superconductivity

...these high-temperature superconductors represent a new solid state of matter that break certain fundamental symmetries of nature.

On October 5, 2005, Dr. Laura H. Greene delivered the first Department of

Physics Distinguished Alumni Lecture. Greene, the Swanlund Endowed Chair in Physics at the University of Illinois, gave the speech “High-Temperature Superconductivity: From Broken Symmetries to Cell Phones” at the Wexner Film/Video Theater on campus.

The following is the abstract of her lecture: Superconductivity, observed in many metals when cooled to extremely low temperatures, was discovered in 1911. In 1986, materials were discovered that superconduct at much more easily obtainable temperatures. This discovery motivated an unprecedented worldwide flurry of research—not only are applications promising, but these high-temperature superconductors represent a new solid state of matter that break certain fundamental symmetries of nature.

Professor Greene received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Ohio State and her Ph.D. from Cornell, then worked at Bell Laboratories and Bellcore. She researches experimental condensed matter physics focusing on strongly correlated electron systems, primarily investigating the mechanisms of unconventional superconductivity by planar tunneling and point-contact electron spectroscopies, and develops new, novel materials and methods of materials microanalyses.

She has served on numerous committees and boards, including the International Union of Pure and Applied Physicists (IUPAP) as the U.S. representative to the C5 (low-temperature physics) commission, and has served on its U.S. liaison committee; the board of physics and astronomy of the National Academies of Science; Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics; Basic Energy Sciences advisory committee for the Department of Energy (DoE); Sloan Foundation Fellow selection committee; schedule and selection committees for the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS); and the editorial board for the Institute of Physics (UK) journal Reports and the Progress in Physics.

Professor Greene is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the AAAS, and the APS. She received the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award from the APS and the E.O. Lawrence Award from the DoE, and has been a visiting scholar for Phi Beta Kappa. Over her career, she has coauthored some 150 publications and presented over 250 invited talks.

Department Award Winners The Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching honors faculty members for superior teaching. Recipients are nominated by present and former students and colleagues and are chosen by a committee of alumni, students, and faculty.

They receive a cash award of $3,000, made possible by contributions from the Alumni Association, friends of Ohio State, and the Office of Academic Affairs. They also receive a $1,200 increase in their base salaries from the Office of Academic Affairs. Recipients are inducted into the university’s Academy of Teaching, which provides leadership for the improvement of teaching at Ohio State.

Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching Richard Hughes

Considered to be an exceptional educator by his students, one student in particular says Richard E. Hughes “was excellent in class, very helpful and available outside of class, and fun to be around.” Hughes’ passion for the subject matter and genuine interest in and willingness to accommodate his students set him apart from other instructors.

One student comments, “I’ve yet to have another teacher as enthusiastic and interesting.”

Another student notes, “Dr. Hughes’ great communication skills, combined with his sharp sense of humor, made him the most interesting lecturer I’ve ever had.” Hughes has proven himself an outstanding educator since joining the university in 1996, demonstrating a mastery of a variety of teaching techniques and styles in the breadth of courses he has taught within the Department of Physics. In addition, he has had a long history of curriculum development and reform in the department and has developed many materials still used in laboratory courses. Outside of the university, Hughes is a world leader in experimental particle physics and studying the fundamental symmetries of nature and has shown himself to be a master of relating the very small (particle physics) to the very large (astrophysics). Hughes received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Bruce Mainland

In the eyes of one of his students, G. Bruce Mainland is “part professor and part cheerleader.” The student emphasizes that his enthusiasm for physics and patient and approachable attitude with students are what set him apart from other instructors.

Nearly every nominator of Mainland for the 2005 Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching echoes these sentiments. His dedication to his students is evident not only in their praise of him, but also in the course work offered at Ohio State Newark.

Mainland develops many of the items needed for experiments and classroom demonstrations, and, in 2002, he prepared materials that allowed Ohio State Newark to offer Physics 104 for the very first time. He also has been instrumental in implementation of lowerlevel engineering courses at the Newark campus. Mainland continually contributes to the university by presenting at recruiting events and serving on important committees at the Newark campus. Additionally, he received the Faculty Service Award in 1994 for his contributions to the campus and received the Provost’s Award for Scholarship Excellence in 1986 in recognition of the high quality of his research. Mainland holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Texas at Austin and joined the Newark faculty in 1975.

Richard Furnstahl – 2004 John and Ruth Mount Award Richard Furnstahl, professor of physics, was presented with the 2004 John and Ruth Mount Award by the Mortar Board and SPHINX honor societies. The Mount Award is given to a faculty or staff member of The Ohio State University who has exhibited the kind of creative leadership and spirited service that John and Ruth Mount exemplified.

The qualities that award winners share with John and Ruth Mount include: generosity of time to the university and students; dedication to and involvement with students—mentoring them and using innovative ways to foster relationships with them; commitment to academics and service; having the ultimate ideals of an outstanding faculty and staff member; a deep love for Ohio State, making it and its people their “family”; and integrity and concern for people of all ages.

Steve Pinsky Named APS Fellow Stephen Pinsky, professor of physics, was named a fellow of the American Physical Society in November 2004.

Pinsky’s citation states he earned the title of fellow “for path-breaking research on glueballs, light-cone field theory, and supersymmetric discrete light cone quantization.”

Over a 10-year period, Pinsky developed a numerical technique called Supersymmetric Discrete Light-Cone Quantization (SDLCQ). He says it’s a technique for numerically solving supersymmetric field theories, which are a type of field theory that were not able to be

Department Award Winners

solved before this method was developed.

Light-cone quantization is a technique that has been around for a long time, but it became popular around 1990, and Kenneth Wilson, professor of physics, established the group at Ohio State. “We started a research program on this at Ohio State,” Pinsky notes. “In 1991 we formed an international organization to foster this kind of research called the International LightCone Advisory Committee. We started running national and international meetings that year.”

Since then, they’ve run more than 20 international meetings on the subject of light-cone quantization. “It is a very vigorous, alive organization,” Pinsky says.

The committee has held meetings all over the world, including Australia and Europe.

Pinsky is also the director of the Ohio Center for Technology and Science (OCTS), which began operation in December 2004.

There were seven OCTS workshops during the 2004-05 academic year, which Pinsky says were quite successful. Participants used Access Grid technology to join the workshops from Australia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and throughout the United States.

A full schedule of six workshops is on tap for 2005-06.

“Since the workshop schedule is full, we want to branch out into other areas of teaching and outreach,” Pinsky says. The OCTS has already run classes with other universities, participated in outreach activities (including the Breakfast of Science Champions with Columbus Public Schools), and been involved with the Minority Servicing Institutions Consortium.

Gary Steigman –Distinguished Professor of MAPS Gary Steigman, professor of physics and astronomy, has been named a Distinguished Professor of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. He received his award at the second annual MAPS Town Meeting, an event presented by Dean Richard R. Freeman. This honorary title carries with it a generous increase in research funding for a period of five years. The following citation describing Steigman’s research was read: “Steigman is one of the founding fathers of the now well-developed field of astroparticle physics. At Ohio State he has built a worldclass astrophysics group in the Department of Physics and played a major role in the buildup of the theoretical astrophysics and

cosmology group in the Department of Astronomy.

His early work on the matterantimatter symmetry of the universe led the way to the development of strong

connections between early universe cosmology and unified theories of elementary particle physics. His work on ’Big Bang Nucleosynthesis’ placed important constraints on the standard hot big bang model of cosmology as well as the standard model of high-energy physics.

Finally, his recent work on properties of cosmic background radiation puts important constraints on the new and mysterious ’dark energy.’”

Award Lets Scientist Probe Life, the Universe, and Everything —by Pam Frost Gorder

A prestigious award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will help John Beacom perform a forensic study of the universe.

He will investigate how stars live and how they die.

The assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Ohio State has earned one of NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards, which recognize a young researcher’s dual commitment to scholarship and education. He will receive more than $600,000 over five years to fuel an ambitious project titled “New frontiers in nuclear astrophysics.”

Beacom will search the skies for evidence of the nuclear reactions that make stars shine. The best clues are subatomic particles called neutrinos, which are notoriously difficult to detect. Despite building giant particle detectors all over the planet, scientists capture only a handful of neutrinos every day. Yet, scientists need to know more about these particles in order to reconstruct what happens when a star ends its life in a supernova, as well as what happens inside normal stars every day.

Neutrinos are intimately linked to the processes that make stars, like our own sun, shine and maintain life on Earth.

That’s why Beacom will explore new techniques for finding these elusive

particles. Ultimately, he hopes to uncover a kind of cosmic neutrino map—a measure of the energy of all the neutrinos that have formed since the universe began. “The first astronomers used their eyes,” Beacom says, “and then optical telescopes, and later they invented radio telescopes and X-ray and infrared telescopes, and they started seeing all kinds of things they’d never seen before.”

“Every time you get a new set of eyes, you learn something new about the universe,” he continues. “We believe that the same thing would be true if we could ‘see’ neutrinos.”

The award also contains a strong education component. Beacom plans outreach activities that target deaf and hard-of-hearing students and their teachers, both in Ohio and around the country.

The CAREER award honors teachers and scholars who are likely to become academic leaders in the future. Since 1996, NSF has given the award to faculty who effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their institution.

This award is not Beacom’s first from the foundation; he was formerly a NSF graduate fellow while earning his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Wisconsin. He joined the Ohio State faculty in 2004.

With the addition of Beacom, Ohio State now boasts 40 CAREER winners.

Department Award Winners

Packard Foundation Awards Prestigious Fellowship to Ohio State Physicist —by Pam Frost Gorder

An Ohio State physicist and leader in the field of femtobiology has been named a fellow by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Dongping Zhong, assistant professor of physics and adjunct professor of chemistry and biochemistry, was one of 16 promising researchers named as the 2005 recipients of Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering. Each fellow will receive an unrestricted, five-year research grant of $625,000.

“I am so pleased by this recognition for Dongping and his research,” says Richard R. Freeman, dean and Distinguished Professor of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. “His work in biophysics demonstrates emerging fields at the edge of disciplines—the overlap between biology and physics, in this case—where new discoveries will take place in the 21st century.”

Zhong’s research focuses on femtobiology— the use of laser light to illuminate biological reactions that happen too fast to be seen with the naked eye. Within living cells, molecules of water, DNA, and proteins are always on the move, with chemical bonds forming and breaking in tiny fractions of a second to perform tasks essential to life, Zhong explains. To see these reactions, he and his colleagues hit molecules with a kind of laser strobe light that lets them take a very fast series of measurements. Assembled like a set of stopmotion photographs, the measurements reveal the individual steps of a biological function as it happens.

Each light pulse is so short, its duration is measured in femtoseconds—quadrillionths of a second—and so the general technique is called “femtochemistry.” Scientists began using it in the 1990s to study chemical catalysts and electronic materials, but, back then, Zhong knew that he wanted to do something different.

In 1999, the trained laser physicist had just finished his doctorate in chemistry, and then realized that what he really wanted to do was study biology. But he wasn’t following a random path—he was really just zeroing in on a new discipline: femtobiology. Since his doctoral advisor was Ahmed Zewail, the scientist at the California Institute of Technology who just that year had won the Nobel Prize for his work in femtochemsitry, Zhong had the resources to follow his unique path.

He remained in Zewail’s lab for three years as a postdoctoral researcher, learning everything he could about biology, then came to Ohio State in 2002—in large part because of a

research thrust in femto-science that is underway here. He was also the first person hired in the Department of Physics’ efforts to expand biophysics research through Ohio State’s Selective Investment program.

Zhong cites the laser facilities at the university’s Center for Chemical and Biophysical Dynamics as an important resource for groups across campus that are laying the groundwork in this new field. In particular, his work in the Department of Physics meshes well with a group in the Department of Chemistry. The chemists are using ultra-fast laser pulses to study how ultraviolet light damages DNA. Zhong’s group recently discovered how cells repair this damage.

“We’re writing a unique story at Ohio State,” he says. “Maybe in the future, we can form one complete picture of DNA damage and repair, from beginning to end.” He’ll use his funds from the Packard Fellowship to expand his research staff and buy new equipment. He is currently focusing on the role that water molecules play in critical cellular functions like protein folding and DNA repair.

What he learns could affect research into diseases such as cancer and Parkinson’s. Still, because femtobiology is such a new field, Zhong knows that he would have difficulty finding funding outside the university, were it not for unrestricted grants such as his new fellowship.

This year, the Packard Foundation invited the presidents of 50 top universities nationwide to nominate fellows and chose Zhong and 15 others who hailed from universities including the California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Johns Hopkins University .

The Packard Fellowship was established in 1988 to strengthen university-based science and engineering programs by supporting unusually creative researchers early in their careers.

Fellows are given “no strings attached” support in a broad range of disciplines that includes physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, astronomy, computer science, earth science, ocean science, and all branches of engineering.

Over 17 years, the program has awarded 364 fellowships totaling over $212 million to faculty members at 52 top national universities. Zhong is the first winner from Ohio State.

Zhong’s research focuses on femtobiology—the use of laser light to illuminate biological reactions that happen too fast to be seen with the naked eye.

Around the Department Harold Whitt explains physics to kids at the Ohio State Fair.

Harold Whitt Receives Distinguished Staff Award Harold Whitt, a lecturer and demonstrator in the Department of Physics, was recognized with a 2005 Distinguished Staff Award. Whitt aids more than 60 faculty, 90 graduate teaching assistants, and several other lecturers in presenting fundamental physics concepts to an array of students through demonstrations that teach and amaze. One nominator writes: “Harold Whitt’s creative work and dedication have combined to make this university a better,

more productive place and supports one of the cornerstones of the Academic Plan: enhancing the quality of the teaching and learning experience.” Another nominator writes: “He is always willing to go out of his way to make sure programs are successful, supporting faculty in their teaching. He is constantly working to upgrade equipment and make demonstrations better, far beyond what is required.” Whitt has shown himself to be

a valuable asset to the department. In addition to setting up demonstrations for physics lectures on campus, Whitt also actively participates in demonstration sessions that take him away from Ohio State to audiences and locations ranging from students at inner city schools and 4-H youth at the Ohio State Fair to administrators and alumni in Washington, D.C., and Sarasota, Florida. Another nominator writes: “He is an extraordinarily talented individual whose hard work and big heart reach way past the bounds of his lecture halls.”

The Distinguished Staff Award recognizes 12 staff members, who have had five years of continuous service, for exceptional accomplishments, leadership, and service to the university community by significantly improving or enhancing the quality of work life in ways that make a substantial difference for their colleagues; contributing to outstanding and sustained improvements in customer services; and developing creative solutions to problems that result in significantly more effective and efficient university operations. The Office of Human Resources awards honorees a $1,500 cash award and a $700 increase to their base salary.

In Memoriam

Carl E. Nielsen Carl E. Nielsen, emeritus professor of physics in the College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, died May 23, 2005.

Professor Nielsen was born in Los Angeles on January 22, 1915. He received his bachelor of arts, master of arts, and doctor of philosophy degrees in physics from the University of California, Berkeley. Before coming to Ohio State in 1947, he taught at the University of California and Denver University.

Professor Nielsen’s research interests in experimental physics spanned a wide range— from cosmic rays and cloud chambers to the physics of fluids and plasmas; and from the stability of accelerator beams to the field of alternative energy sources and pioneering

work on salinity-gradient solar ponds for which he received the Charles Greeley Abbot Award of the American Solar Energy Society. He was also coauthor of a book about solar ponds.

Matching his dedication to research was his dedication to teaching and to his students. His gifts to the university established the Undergraduate Physics Research Endowment Fund, which provides scholarship support for undergraduate students in the Department of Physics.

Professor Nielsen was a member of the American Physical Society and of its Forum on the History of Physics and its Forum on Physics and Society. He was also a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Carl Nielsen at the 2005 Smith Lecture

Welcome New Faculty

Nandini Trivedi Nandini Trivedi, professor of physics, physics is sitting in this two-dimensional joined the Condensed Matter Theory structure. So that’s what is exciting; out of Group at Ohio State in August 2004 and this complexity you unearth that little core is working on developing theories for piece which is really simple and you go strongly interacting particles within after that.” She has a series of Picasso the framework of high-temperature sketches hanging on the wall in her office superconductivity and quantum phase that start as a complex bull, then become transitions. “There are some big puzzles simple, simpler, and finally the end result that are brought out by different systems is achieved—a few simple lines that serve that I look at,” Trivedi states. “The main as a framework. “That’s kind of how I view complexity behind these systems is that the physics of these materials,” she says. whatever particles you have cannot be “It’s something complex over there, but described as just moving by themselves hopefully we can elicit out of it, not a independently. They are usually very spherical cow which has no features, but strongly interacting with each other.” something which still has the core of the Superconductors are materials that physics in it. And even that has proved have no resistance to current flow. extremely challenging to solve. At this Theories are well established for materpoint there are still many issues about ials that, when cooled to very low high-temperature superconductivity temperatures, become superconducting. that are open, and the active research is But Trivedi explains, “About 20 years ago, ongoing.” a completely new class of materials was Trivedi has had a varied career since discovered where this phenomena was receiving her Ph.D., including working at seen at much higher temperatures.”

Argonne National Lab in Illinois for five The temperatures Trivedi refers to are years and, most recently, spending nine higher than liquid nitrogen; in fact they years at the Tata Institute for Research in have been achieved up to 125 India. She explains why she Kelvin (300 Kelvin is room “All the physics is sitting made the move to Ohio: “I temperature). “If we wanted to be at a university in this two-dimensional understand the mechanism structure. So that's what because I like teaching and I by which this happens then is exciting; out of this like having young students the hope is that one can complexity you unearth that every year; it sort of keeps little core piece which is suggest avenues, or new up the energy.” She has really simple and you go materials, which might be taught the undergraduate after that.” even higher-temperature electrodynamics course, superconductors, hopefully ­— Nandini Trivedi Physics 657, and assigned a at room temperatures,” project to each student that she says. tied the course material These new materials appear fairly to tangible concepts and had a mini uninteresting on the surface—just like a conference at the end. “That was really black stone. But it is made of four complex fun,” Trivedi beams. “They enjoyed that elements: yttrium, barium, copper, and too. And also you feel like you own the oxygen, and it turns out the main actor in material—more than even the person this material is the simple copper oxide teaching the course.” structure. Trivedi points out, “All the

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Welcome New Faculty

Mohit Randeria Ohio State’s Department of Physics gained doubly when it hired Professor Mohit Randeria. He became part of the Condensed Matter Theory Group in August 2004, along with his wife Nandini Trivedi, professor of physics. “We’ve been married 23 years,” Randeria reveals. They both did their Ph.D.s at Cornell and have been very fortunate in finding work together. “For three or four years we lived apart at the early stage in our careers, but interactions are so large that the fermions since then we’ve always succeeded in pair up into diatomic molecules. As being together,” he says. Ohio State was Randeria elaborates, “The intermediate definitely a draw because of its history of regime between these two is actually a very very strong work in condensed matter strongly interacting state of matter which theory and experiment. Personal reasons has analogs as far removed as nuclear also played a factor. Living in physics and quantum field the Midwest for a long time, theory.” Work that he did “The intermediate regime including time at Argonne in this field more than 10 between these two is National Lab and the years ago has now been actually a very strongly University of Illinois for eight interacting state of matter verified in atomic scale years, has taught Randeria experiments that were not which has analogs as far removed as nuclear physics possible then. “On the that, “It’s a very nice part of and quantum field theory.” the country to live and to other hand it also raises bring up kids.” a whole new class of ­— Mohit Randeria One area of interest to questions because of the Randeria is quantum gases. ability to do such beautiful This is a relatively new field that studies experiments,” he says. the behavior of atomic gases when they An undergraduate degree in electrical are cooled. In particular, he is working on engineering from IIT Delhi has given problems in the BCS-BEC crossover Randeria an appreciation for experiment, regime. The classic Bardeen-Cooperand he has collaborated for quite some Schrieffer theory deals with weak time with an experimental group in interactions of fermionic atoms in which Chicago on research related to highthe behavior is the same as conventional superconductors. On the other hand, Bose Einstein Condensates form when the

temperature superconductors. The experiment is Einstein’s photoelectric effect done in solids. A synchrotron light source sends photons onto the object, and electrons are knocked off in a method called angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. He explains that, “You learn about the spectrum of excitations, the nature of many body interactions in the solid. So you get all kinds of very detailed information about the metal or the superconductor you’re studying.”

His work focuses on so-called cuprates: materials composed of four to five different elements but all with copperoxide layers. “All the interesting metallic behaviors, superconductivity and magnetism, are happening on these copper-oxide layers,” he says. Much of his recent work has focused on the theory of high-temperature superconductivity— one of the most exciting areas of physics, as these materials challenge existing paradigms of the field.

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Welcome New Faculty

John Beacom The strong relationship between the Departments of Physics and Astronomy was a major factor in John Beacom’s decision to join the Ohio State faculty. “The level of interaction among the members of the interdisciplinary astrophysics and cosmology effort here is unequaled, I think, anywhere,” remarks Beacom, assistant professor of physics and astronomy. “The constant exposure to new topics and viewpoints, along with the remarkably collaborative attitude, makes this an especially good environment for mentoring graduate students.”

Beacom joins the Theoretical Astrophysics and Cosmology Group, where the majority of his work deals with neutrinos, gamma rays, and dark matter.

Neutrinos are electrically neutral subatomic particles that respond only to the weak nuclear force and are therefore very difficult to detect. The only two astrophysical sources that have been detected are the sun and, in 1987, the relatively nearby supernova. A major focus of Beacom’s work is trying to extend the list to include other astrophysical objects. This work draws on the knowledge and techniques of astrophysics, cosmology, nuclear physics, and particle physics, and Beacom says that the strong Ohio State groups in all of these areas, both theoretical and experimental, were a big attraction. “It’s much more fun to be in the middle of everything,” he says.

Beacom often collaborates with experimentalists, which is atypical in his field of research. One project he has worked on is related to the neutrino detector in Japan known as Super-Kamiokande. Beacom and Mark Vagins from the University of California, Irvine, proposed that the detector capabilities could be greatly enhanced by the addition of a dissolved salt, gadolinium trichloride, into the 50 thousand tons of ultrapure water. This would allow the detection of neutrons, leading to a better separation of signal and background events. “For the first time, we would be able to detect the faint glow of neutrinos from all the supernovae that happened in the history of the universe,” Beacom says. While the supernova rate in the universe is about “For the first time, we would be able to detect the once per second, even this gigantic detector would see only faint glow of neutrinos from about six neutrino interactions per year. The tongue-in-cheek all the supernovae that name for this proposal is GADZOOKS! (Gadolinium happened in the history of Antineutrino Detector Zealously Outperforming Old the universe.”­ Kamiokande-Super!). “Some people say this acronym sounds — John Beacom forced,” Beacom says dryly.

After completing his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin in 1997, he was the Sherman Fairchild Fellow at Caltech, and then the David Schramm Fellow at Fermilab, before moving to Columbus in 2004. His wife, Jenna, is deaf, and part of the attraction of Columbus was the large and vibrant deaf community here. Jenna has a master’s degree in deaf education and earlier directed a center in Los Angeles that provided job training and placement for deaf adults. As part of his education and public outreach efforts, Beacom has recently initiated discussions with the Ohio School for the Deaf in Columbus, noting, “We have a responsibility to bring our science to all of the citizens of Ohio.”

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Welcome New Faculty

James Beatty Earning an undergraduate degree in chemistry and having two parents who are chemists did not stop Jim Beatty from becoming a professor of physics and astronomy at Ohio State in the summer of 2004. It seems the combination of being a child in the 1960s, having a telescope, and watching the Gemini and Apollo flights sparked an interest that has become only deeper with time. As head of the Experimental Particle Astrophysics Group, Beatty’s research is now focused on cosmic particles that have traveled across galaxies and reached the earth.

“Particle astrophysics is the interface between astrophysics and high-energy physics,” Beatty explains. “In essence what we’re doing is studying particles that are made by accelerators in various violent astrophysical environments.” Atomic nuclei and electrons make up what are known as cosmic rays, and they are constantly arriving at the top of the earth’s atmosphere. These cosmic rays interact with the atmosphere and produce a shower of natural radiation that is detected on the surface of the earth.

Beatty says very high-energy cosmic rays, on the order of 1020 eV, are not deflected much by the magnetic fields between galaxies because their momentum is so high. These particles are traveling so close to the speed of light “I've been working on this for about 10 years; it's just that they lose energy when they interact with the bearing fruit now....It's a cosmic microwave radiation left over from the Big Bang. These particles are very rare, on the order of long-term, large internaone appearing per square kilometer every century. tional project—we have 300 scientists and 19 Beatty is involved with an experiment in countries involved.”

Argentina called the Pierre Auger Observatory. Part ­ — James Beatty of the experiment consists of water tanks spaced every 1,500 meters. The tanks have “three very sensitive photomultiplier tubes [that] allow us to detect Cherenkov radiation, which is the radiation made when charged particles pass through media faster than the speed of light in that medium,” Beatty explains. He leads an international team that makes the electronics for the water tanks. “I’ve been working on this for about 10 years; it’s just bearing fruit now,” he says. “It’s a long-term, large international project—we have 300 scientists and 19 countries involved.”

Another experiment he is involved with is studying neutrinos, which are particles produced when cosmic rays with very high energies collide with photons in the microwave background.

Beatty states that, “Neutrinos are hard to detect because they don’t interact very strongly with matter. But as their energy increases, that interaction does get stronger,” and the earth is thick enough so that at high enough energies there starts to be some hope for detecting them. The experiment, called Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA), flies in a balloon at 120,000 feet and “looks like a second stage setup at a Rolling Stones concert,” Beatty describes enthusiastically. “It’s an array of horn antennas looking down; it looks like a bunch of loudspeakers.” ANITA is designed to detect radio bursts made by neutrinos interacting underneath the ice.

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Welcome New Faculty

Jay Gupta

“The interesting thing about it is that when you build things that are so small, quantum mechanics takes over.”

— Jay Gupta

Jay Gupta, assistant professor of physics, did not take long to settle into his new life.

He began work at Ohio State in August 2004 and now heads his own Condensed Matter Experimental Group, which includes two undergrads, four graduate students, and a visiting scientist. In the short time he has been in Columbus, he has also met a graduate student who is finishing her master’s degree in architecture, and they got married in Hawaii in September 2005. Gupta dazedly pronounces: “It’s been an amazing year!”

He credits Dr. David Lay, a high school physics teacher at Parkway North High School in St. Louis, for inspiring his physics career. Gupta says Dr. Lay “came up with all these really cool projects like digital electronics,” which piqued an interest in physics that continued on through college. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and his graduate work was at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Before coming to Ohio, Gupta did a postdoc at IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose.

Although the atmosphere was welcoming for his research at IBM, Gupta says he finds the university setting more appealing because industry “wasn’t as dynamic an environment. People are permanent employees there, so the only people who come and go are summer interns or postdocs.” Ohio State was particularly appealing because of the strong effort in scanned probe microscopes and because of the new Physics Research Building. “It was definitely a big draw having a new lab to move into,” Gupta said.

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Gupta’s research group studies the interactions of atoms and molecules on surfaces and building nanoscale structures. “The interesting thing about it is that when you build things that are so small, quantum mechanics takes over,” he explains. “It starts dictating the properties of these structures and so you get a variety of behaviors that you wouldn’t expect from the bulk materials that people have studied since the 1950s.” He is setting up two scanning tunneling microscopes that can image at atomic resolution as well as manipulate surface atoms and molecules.

Gupta’s research represents a multi-faceted look at possibilities for future electronics. Some experiments he has planned will look at how electron spin is influenced by the local environment. This could have applications in advanced information technologies where the electron spin is used in electronics instead of currents flowing in wires. He will also be studying organic materials in collaboration with Art Epstein, Distinguished University Professor of Physics and Chemistry and director of the Ohio State Institute for Magnetic and Electronic Polymers. Gupta will be “looking at the properties of single molecules on surfaces. You might imagine taking the fundamental building block of one of these organic circuits and studying its properties with the types of microscopic tools we have.”

Welcome New Faculty

Yuri Kovchegov Yuri Kovchegov joined the Department of Physics in September 2004 as an assistant professor. He has taken his place in the Nuclear Theory Group where he studies “strong interactions under extreme conditions,” concentrating on high-energy collisions.

Kovchegov’s research falls under two broad categories, one of which is Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS). An example of this approach is using electrons to study protons. Electrons are much smaller than protons, so when the two collide the electron penetrates the proton and the proton’s inner structure can be studied. With extremely high energies the wave function of the proton is very dense. “You are probing matter that is much denser than anything else on earth,” Kovchegov explains. “It’s really very dense matter, much denser even than the cores of neutron stars.”

The other situation he considers arises from heavy ion collisions. This is where you “have a very high-energy collision of two very large nuclei that ram into each other and produce a sort of mishmash of quarks and gluons,” which is of very high density.

Kovchegov is studying the properties of the quark and gluon plasma that is created.

New to the venue of teaching, he conducted a “You're really a student graduate-level special topics course on his area of forever. That's what research, Strong Interactions at High Energy, in academia is. If you stop spring 2005. “It was fun to invent new ways of being a student, if you stop presenting the material so it would be accessible to learning, you would stop developing.” students,” says Kovchegov. “It’s fun to watch them — Yuri Kovchegov learn.” His challenge now is to balance time dedicated to research versus time with students in the classroom, but he is finding he enjoys teaching. “I’m getting to like it as much as research,” he says. course very different,” he notes. “You’re really a student forever.

Interest in physics for Kovchegov developed from an interest That’s what academia is. If you stop being a student, if you stop in astronomy, sparked by a visit to a planetarium. As he got older learning, you would stop developing. And if you stop developing, he shifted to cosmology and ultimately to physics in general. He you’re dead meat!” Kovchegov relocated from the University of notes that in high school he thought of becoming a professor.

Washington in Seattle where he was a research assistant professor.

“Your idea of how academia works and how it really works are of He is married and has a young daughter.

Kovchegov Receives Largest OJI Grant Ever Awarded to a Nuclear Theorist by the DOE Once a year the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Physics invites grant applications for support under the Outstanding Junior Investigator (OJI) program in nuclear physics.

The purpose of the program is to support development of individual research programs of outstanding scientists early in their careers. This prestigious award is the grant to get for a young nuclear or high-energy researcher.

to address fundamental questions regarding the calculation of scattering cross sections in high-energy hadronic and nuclear scattering experiments, to understand particle production mechanisms in these collisions, and to elucidate the process of formation of quarkThe award will enable Kovchegov to pursue research gluon plasma in high-energy in the area of strong interactions heavy ion collisions. at high energies. He will use it In FY 2005, Yuri Kovchegov was one of three nuclear physicists to receive an OJI grant, and— at $120,000 per year for up to five years—his was the largest ever awarded to a nuclear theorist in the history of the OJI program.

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Welcome New Faculty

Julia Meyer Julia Meyer, assistant professor of physics, had a decision to make in 2004. While she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Minnesota, she was offered a faculty position at Ohio State and a postdoc position at Argonne National Laboratory. “There was somebody I really wanted to work with [at Argonne], so I decided to go there for one year and then come here,” she says. “That worked really well. I established some interesting new collaborations and started the project on quantum wires that I’m working on now. Spending last year at a research lab was a great experience, but it also showed me that I like the university atmosphere better.” Meyer joined the Condensed Matter Theory Group at Ohio State in September 2005. She received her Ph.D. in 2001 from the University of Cologne.

Meyer’s research focuses on mesoscopic physics. “It is what happens in systems that contain many particles but are still small enough such that quantum mechanics is important,” she notes.

“This is especially pronounced in low dimensions, where the interplay between electron interactions and quantum interference effects determines the properties.” Low-dimensional systems comprise, for example, two-dimensional electron gases, arrays of quantum dots, and quantum wires.

“Right now I’m mainly working on quantum wires, which are very small conductors. Some recent experiments showed quite puzzling effects,” she says. “There has been a lot of “Quantum wires are often speculation, but they’re still not understood. Quantum assumed to be onewires are often assumed to be one-dimensional, but in dimensional, but in fact they are not. So we're fact they are not. So we’re trying to figure out what trying to figure out what happens at the transition between a one-dimensional happens at the transition and quasi one-dimensional state. It’s clear that the two between a one-dimensional are different, but how exactly?” Meyer also has an and a quasi-dimensional interest in superconductivity in disordered systems. state.”

She says several things drew her to the Ohio State — Julia Meyer Department of Physics: “The people are very friendly and supportive. They seem to be interested in what others [on the faculty] are doing. Plus, the fact that they hired so many people [recently] makes it a very dynamic department.

Thus, it’s even more interesting to be here because we have a great condensed matter group. I should also mention the new building, which is very nice.”

Meyer, whose uncle was a physicist, always had an interest in figuring out how things work. Before beginning her college studies in physics, she also considered medicine. “But once I started in physics I realized that it’s a great field to work in and I just continued.”

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Welcome New Faculty

because historically its research has been used by others in the department for course innovation. In overhauling the secondyear physics series, the PER group worked together with other faculty to create a better sequence. “We’ll continue to do stuff like that. Absolutely,” he says.

His route to assistant professor of physics has been unique.

Prior to receiving his Ph.D, Heckler spent two years in Gabon, Africa, as a member of the Peace Corps. Upon graduating from the University of Washington with a doctorate in particle physics and cosmology, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Fermilab in Chicago before coming back to Ohio State.

When he accepted the assistant dean position within the College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Heckler says he took a “leap of faith. I was groomed to be a faculty in cosmology and I basically completely switched “We believe that some my path.” For seven years, his position as assistant misunderstandings of dean enabled him to work with K-12 initiatives science, like the fact that a lot of people say that including teacher preparation and professional summer is warmer because development. Working in conjunction with the it is closer to the sun, is College of Education and Columbus Public largely due to basic Schools allowed for the creation of an underNew assistant professor of physics Andrew Heckler cognitive reasoning graduate major for students who want to be is no newcomer to Ohio State. An alumnus of the mechanisms common middle school teachers. His outreach work in Department of Physics, he received his bachelor’s to everyone.” education led to research on physics education and degree in 1986 and returned to Ohio State in 1996 — Andrew Heckler cognitive research. These experiences “culminated as a postdoctoral researcher in the area of particle in a few publications, and then I realized, hey, I cosmology. From 1998 until autumn 2005, he served want to do this research full time,” he says. as an assistant dean in the College of Mathematical and “I sort of made a full circle and came back to the physics Physical Sciences. department unexpectedly,” Heckler notes. “I never would have Heckler’s research focuses on physics education research guessed that I would have taken this path at all.”

(PER), a relatively new field in which a growing number of institutions are establishing programs. PER examines how students learn physics and aims to produce better instruction.

With a grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Cognition and Student Learning program, he is collaborating with psychologists at Ohio State to study the cognitive origins of student misconceptions.

“We believe that some misunderstandings of science, like the fact that a lot of people say that summer is warmer because it is closer to the sun, is largely due to basic cognitive reasoning mechanisms common to everyone,” he says. “And once we understand these mechanisms, we can design—from first principals— better curriculum to address these misconceptions.”

Having studied PER previously with Alan Van Heuvelen, a former professor of physics at Ohio State, Heckler feels his teaching technique and instruction have improved, not only to the benefit of his students, but also other faculty. The PER group is distinctive

Andrew Heckler

Heckler works with high school teachers at a workshop.

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Undergraduate Student News In 1986, Congress established the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program to honor the man who served his country for 56 years as a soldier and statesman, including 30 years of service in the U.S. Senate. The program was designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering. In its history, the foundation has awarded 4,562 scholarships worth approximately $45 million. The foundation awards junior-level scholarships for a maximum of two academic years. The scholarships cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year.

Dominick Olivito – Goldwater Scholarship Hard work in the classroom and the lab paid off for Dominick Olivito when he earned a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for the 2005-06 academic year. The scholarship covers the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year.

“When I found out, I was, of course, pretty stoked about it,” he says. “The first thing I did was call my parents about it and they were all excited. They had me call my grandparents. Everybody was just really happy for me.”

Olivito said the guidance of Rebecca Ward and Dennis McKay from Ohio State’s Honors Collegium, and his research advisors, Professors Richard Hughes and Brian Winer, helped him through the application process. “I was really hoping I would get [the scholarship] because I put a

lot of work into the application,” he explains.

Olivito has been involved with high-energy physics research in the lab of Hughes and Winer since the spring of 2003. He says he works on hardware and trigger electronics in the lab. Hughes and Winer are part of the CDF Collaboration at Fermi Lab. When Olivito starts graduate school in fall 2006, he plans to continue in high-energy particle physics. “[In the future] I want to stay in physics and I want to do research,” he says. “My goals right now are to go through grad school, get a Ph.D., do some postdoctoral work, and then see where that leads me, and possibly get a faculty position.” Olivito, who

is from Carrollton, Ohio, chose Ohio State because of the proximity to his hometown and the quality of the Honors Program.

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation awarded 320 scholarships for the 20052006 academic year to undergraduate sophomores and juniors from the United States. The Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,091 mathematics, science, and engineering students who were nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide.

Julia Janczak – 2005 Physics Academic Achievement Scholarship It’s natural for children to want to emulate their parents, but as they become adults, they usually develop their own interests.

Such was the case for Julia Janczak, winner of the 2005 Physics Academic Achievement Scholarship.

“I’ve been interested in science for a long time,” she says. “I think a lot of it had to do with my dad, who was a mechanical engineer. So I started out wanting to be like him and be a mechanical engineer, but then I realized I was more interested in knowing how things work rather than building machines. I want to know the principles behind them.”

That line of thinking made physics a great major for Janczak, who is from Mount Vernon, Ohio. “Physics is definitely my focus. I’ve considered adding astronomy as another major, but that ties in pretty well

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with physics,” she notes. “Right now I’m mainly interested in astrophysics or possibly atomic or nuclear physics. I like the biggest scale or the smallest scale.”

Janczak, a freshman, has found her transition from high school to college smoother than she expected. “You always hear about Ohio State being such a huge campus, but I’ve found I get around it pretty well,” she says. “I feel pretty much at home here. I worked here before, painting dorm rooms over the summer, so I was kind of familiar already with where to find buildings.”

While she spent most of her first quarter on campus focusing on her studies and getting used to the college environment,

Janczak hopes to get involved in the orchestra at Ohio State.

She has played the violin since the fourth grade and played in the high school orchestra. “I think music is a big way for me to relax and unwind a little bit,” she says.

The Physics Academic Achievement Scholarship is open to any high school student planning to major in physics or engineering physics at Ohio State. It covers the full cost of in-state tuition for four years as long as the student continues to make good progress toward a degree in physics.

Undergraduate Student News Department of Physics Undergraduate Awards Ceremony Physics Academic Achievement Scholarship

Julia Janzcak

Physics Merit Scholarship

Presenter: Professor Linn Van Woerkom, Vice Chair of Undergraduate Studies

Doug Schaeffer

Goldwater Scholarship

Dominick Olivito

NSF Graduate Fellowship – Honorable Mention

Tom Weisgarber

The Ohio State University Presidential Scholar

Nathan Ross

2004-2005 Undergraduate Prizes Senior Alumni Award

Thomas Weisgarber

Smith Senior Awards

Ryanne Kennedy Christopher Porter Ethan Triplett

Smith Junior Awards

James Cryan Dominick Olivito Austen Rau Ben Wilson Justin Wiser Zach Yoscovits

Smith Sophomore Awards

Tom Colvin Johanna Craig Garrett Elliott Glenn Ireland Greg Kestin William Kindel Jeremy Voltz Joseph Wayman

Helen Cowan Book Awards

Brian Dainton Helen Debbeler Daniel Debelius Adam Dunkelberger Jessica Hanslik Megan Kalb Tom Lapille John Mergo Steve Swihart Christine Zgrabik

(above) Students, parents, and faculty at the 2005 Undergraduate Awards ceremony (inset above) Helen Cowan Book Award winners (inset left) Smith Sophomore Award winners

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Research in the News Future Computer: Atoms Packed in an “Egg Carton” of Light?

Scientists at Ohio State have taken a step toward the development of powerful new computers—by making tiny holes that contain nothing at all.

The holes—dark spots in an egg carton-shaped surface of laser light—could one day cradle atoms for quantum computing.

Worldwide, scientists are racing to develop computers that exploit the quantum mechanical properties of atoms, explains Greg Lafyatis, associate professor of physics at Ohio State. These so-called quantum computers could enable much faster computing than is possible today. One strategy for making quantum computers involves packaging individual atoms on a chip so that laser beams can read quantum data.

Lafyatis and doctoral student Katharina Christandl recently designed a chip with a top surface of laser light that functions as an array of tiny traps, each of which could potentially hold a single atom.

The design would enable quantum data to be read the

same way CDs are read today.

Other research teams have created similar arrays, called optical lattices, but those designs present problems that could make them hard to use in practice. Other lattices lock atoms into a multi-layered cube floating in free space. But manipulating atoms in the center of the cube would be difficult.

The Ohio State lattice has a more practical design, with a single layer of atoms grounded just above a glass chip. Each atom could be manipulated directly with a single laser beam.

The lattice forms where two sets of laser beams cross inside a thin transparent coating on the chip. The beams interfere with each other to create a grid of peaks and valleys—the egg carton-shaped pattern of light.

The physicists expected to see that much when they first modeled their lattice design on a computer. But to their surprise, the simulations showed that each valley contained a dark spot, a tiny empty sphere surrounded by electric fields that

seemed ideally suited for trapping single atoms and holding them in place, Lafyatis says. In the laboratory, he and Christandl were able to create an optical lattice of light, though the traps are too tiny to see with the naked eye.

The next step is to see if the traps actually work as the model predicts.

The Research Corporation funded this work. For the complete Ohio State news release, visit http:// researchnews.osu.edu/archive/ eggcarton.htm.

“Bumpy Space Dust” Explains Origin of Most Common Molecule in the Universe Scientists have long known that hydrogen is indeed by far the most abundant element in the universe. When they peer through their telescopes, they see hydrogen in the vast clouds of dust and gas between stars— especially in the denser regions that are collapsing to form new stars and planets. But one mystery has remained: why is much of that hydrogen in molecular form—with two hydrogen atoms bonded together—rather than its single atomic form? Where did all that molecular hydrogen come from?

Ohio State researchers, including Eric Herbst, Distinguished University Professor of Physics, discovered that one seemingly tiny detail—whether the surfaces of interstellar dust 20

grains are smooth or bumpy— could explain why there is so much molecular hydrogen in the universe. Hydrogen is the simplest atomic element known; it consists of just one proton and one electron. Scientists have always taken for granted the existence of molecular hydrogen when forming theories about where all the larger and more elaborate molecules in the universe came from. But nobody could explain how so many hydrogen atoms were able to form molecules—until now.

For two hydrogen atoms to have enough energy to bond in the cold reaches of space, they first have to meet on a surface, Herbst explains. Though scientists suspected that space dust provided the necessary surface for such chemical

reactions, laboratory simulations of the process never worked.

At least, they didn’t work well enough to explain the full abundance of molecular hydrogen that scientists see in space.

Herbst, professor of physics, chemistry, and astronomy, joined with Herma Cuppen, a postdoctoral researcher, and Qiang Chang, a doctoral student, both in physics, to simulate different dust surfaces on a computer.

They then modeled the motion of two hydrogen atoms tumbling along the different surfaces until they found one another to form a molecule. Given the amount of dust that scientists think is floating in space, the Ohio State researchers were able to simulate the creation of the right amount of hydrogen,

but only on bumpy surfaces.

For the complete Ohio State news release, visit http:// researchnews.osu.edu/archive/ molhydro.htm.

Hydrogen atoms require bumpy surfaces to form molecules.

Research in the News Researchers Get Clearer View of Earth’s Atmosphere—from the Laboratory For scientists who want to discern the complex chemistry at work in Earth’s atmosphere, detecting a particular gas molecule can be as hard as finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. Frank De Lucia, professor of physics at Ohio State, and his colleagues recently used their FAST Scan Submillimeter Spectroscopy Technique (FASSST) to make the job easier.

The technique offers a way for scientists to examine the spectrum of light given off by a molecule. Each molecule has its own one-of-a-kind spectral

pattern, like lines in a bar code.

FASSST takes a snapshot of a wide range of spectral wavelengths, so scientists can easily recognize the pattern of the molecule they are looking for. Experiments that have traditionally taken weeks or months can be completed in a few seconds.

De Lucia and doctoral student Andrey Meshkov reported that the FASSST technique can be used to help scientists remove the signals from molecules that interfere with studies of gas systems such as Earth’s atmosphere. De Lucia

used the example of a problem common to his collaborators at NASA: satellite measurements of chemicals involved in the creation or destruction of ozone.

“Say you’re trying to look though the atmosphere to see small amounts of hydrogen peroxide. You have to understand how the signal from the hydrogen peroxide changes as it travels through the atmosphere to a satellite,” he says. “The path that the signal follows can be thousands of kilometers long, so you have to be able to subtract out the part of the atmosphere that you don’t care about to get

at the really small effects that you do care about.”

The background signal from other molecules that scientists are not interested in—frequently molecules of water, oxygen, or nitrogen—is called the continuum. FASSST lets scientists get a handle on the continuum signal by essentially freezing an atmosphere in time so scientists can remove the parts they don’t want.

For the complete Ohio State news release, visit http:// researchnews.osu.edu/archive/ fastatmo.htm.

First Experimental Evidence of Molecular Quantum Monodromy Ohio State physicists have obtained the first-ever experimental evidence of a particular quantum mechanical effect—one that was theorized a decade ago. The effect, called quantum monodromy (Greek for “once around”), relates in part to the behavior of molecules based on their atomic structure and vibrational frequencies.

In some molecules, the atomic bonds act like joints where the molecule can bend and rotate unusually far from their normal positions, like a Scientists draw graphs to map the energy of molecules. human arm can bend or rotate at the elbow or shoulder, explains Manfred Winnewisser, adjunct professor of physics at Ohio State. The movement changes the shape exhibit the bending they wanted to see. A special laboratory of the molecule and affects its vibrational and rotational energy as instrument enabled the test. Frank De Lucia, professor of physics at well as how it interacts with other molecules. “In order to understand Ohio State, and his colleagues designed the instrument to utilize their the absorption of solar radiation in the atmosphere, one has to FAST Scan Submillimeter Spectroscopy Technique (FASSST). understand the proper physics,” Winnewisser says. “So an improved In the case of the NCNCS molecule, Winnewisser and his understanding of physics or chemistry or biology is actually the most colleagues used FASSST to record a series of spectral features, important application of studies of monodromy.” including the features corresponding to the energy of the molecule at To understand the movement of such molecules, scientists draw the monodromy point. Ivan Medvedev, a doctoral student in physics, a graph, a kind of map of the molecule’s energy. For molecules that and his colleagues, then used software he developed to reveal exhibit quantum monodromy, the map looks like an upright cylinder patterns in the spectrum. The open-source software is called with a bulge rising from the bottom, like the bottom of a wine or Computer Aided Assignment of Asymmetric Rotor Spectra (CAAARS). champagne bottle. The top of the bulge is a critical point where the When they plotted the spectrum with CAAARS, the physicists shape of the molecule changes, Winnewisser says. could identify patterns that exactly matched patterns in the To learn more about what happens at this “monodromy point,” predicted spectrum for a molecule exhibiting quantum monodromy.

Ohio State physicists studied the molecule cyanogen isothiocyanate For the complete Ohio State news release, visit (NCNCS). Its atoms fit together in a long chain that they hoped would http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/quantmon.htm.

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Research in the News Sensor Could Detect Concealed Weapons without X-Rays A new sensor being patented by Ohio State could be used to detect concealed weapons or help pilots see better through rain and fog. Unlike X-ray machines or radar instruments, the sensor doesn’t have to generate a signal to detect objects—it spots them based on how brightly they reflect the natural radiation that is all around us every day.

There is always a certain amount of radiation—light, heat, and even microwaves—in the environ-ment. Every object—the human body, a gun or knife, or an asphalt runway—reflects this ambient radiation differently. Paul Berger, professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at Ohio State and head of the team that is developing the sensor, likens this reflection to

the way glossy and satin-finish paints reflect light differently to the eye.

Once the sensor is further developed, it could be used to scan people or luggage without subjecting them to X-rays or other radiation. And if the sensor were embedded in an airplane nose, it might help pilots see a runway during bad weather. The Ohio State sensor isn’t the only ambient radiation sensor under development, but it is the only one Berger knows of that is compatible with silicon—a feature that makes it relatively inexpensive and easy to work with.

Berger says that the new sensor grew out of his team’s recent invention of a device called a tunnel diode that

transmits large amounts of electricity through silicon. He was reading about another team’s ambient radiation sensor when he realized that their device worked like one of his diodes— only in reverse.

“It’s basically just a really bad tunnel diode,” he explains. “I thought, heck, we can make a bad diode! We made lots of them back when we were figuring out how to make good ones.” As it turns out, a really bad tunnel diode can be a really good sensor.

The National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research funded this work.

For the complete Ohio State news release, visit http:// researchnews.osu.edu/archive/ bakdiode.htm.

Paul Berger (right) with coauthor Niu Jin, now at the University of Illinois

Sung-Yong (left) and Ronghua Yu, graduate students who worked with Berger on the sensor

Plastic Diode Could Lead to Flexible, Low-Power Computer Circuits, Memory Ohio State researchers have invented a new organic polymer tunnel diode—an electronic component that could one day lead to plastic computer memory and plastic logic circuits on computer chips. Today, computer chips use mainly inorganic silicon.

The diode transmits electrical current at room temperature, and its design lends itself to easy, inexpensive manufacturing for smart cards and other memory devices, says Paul Berger, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and professor of physics at Ohio State. In tests, the team was able to fashion two diodes into a simple computer chip device called a logic switch, powered by the voltage equivalent to an ordinary watch battery.

Most plastics don’t conduct electricity, Berger explains. That fact hasn’t stopped researchers from trying to build plastic computer chips, which could be used in lightweight, flexible electronic devices. In their most successful efforts, some groups have coaxed 22

modest numbers of electrons through conducting plastics using quantum mechan-ical effects— but then only by painstakingly manipulating individual molecules of plastic at cryogenic temperatures. Those experiments have also been difficult to replicate.

Berger and his students got around that problem by taking the opposite approach. Instead of working with one plastic molecule at a time, they painted a thick layer of plastic on top of traditional chip materials, with a specially designed layer of titanium oxide sandwiched in between.

They got the idea in 2003 when Sita Asar—then an undergraduate physics student at Ohio State—was designing a plastic solar cell in Berger’s lab.

The device was designed to convert solar energy to electrical energy. When he looked at the results of one of Asar’s experiments, Berger noticed something unusual—a tiny blip in an otherwise smooth graph line charting the amount of electrical

current passing through the material. At low voltages, the current spiked, and then returned to normal.

On closer inspection, he saw that the plastic was showing an effect called “negative differential resis-tance,” in which the current actually decreases over a particular range of increasing voltage. The effect resembled that shown by a semiconductor device called a tunnel diode. For all of the diode’s good points, Berger stops short of saying that it could lead to electronics made entirely of plastic. “Plastic isn’t going to replace silicon—at least, I don’t advocate that. I think that plastic is going to augment silicon,” he says.

This research was partly supported by the National Science Foundation, including an award Berger received from its Research Experience for Undergraduates program.

For the complete Ohio State news release, visit http:// researchnews.osu.edu/archive/ plasdiod.htm.

Sita Asar, then an undergraduate physics student, helped in getting research on the diode started.

Paul Berger (left) with graduate student Woo-Jun Yoon, who worked extensively to develop the diode

Research in the News Scientists Get First Glimpse at How Plants, Most Animals Repair UV-Damaged DNA For the first time, researchers have observed exactly how some cells are able to repair DNA damage caused by the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

Ohio State’s study revealed how the enzyme photolyase uses energy from visible light to repair UV damage. This enzyme is missing in all mammals, including humans, although all plants and all other animals have it. Greater understanding of how photolyase works could one day lead to drugs that help repair UV damage in human DNA. Dongping Zhong, an assistant professor of physics and adjunct assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Ohio State, and his colleagues report experimental evidence of what scientists have long suspected—that visible light excites the photolyase molecule and boosts the energy of electrons in its atoms. This in turn enables the enzyme to inject an electron into the DNA molecule at the UV damage site temporarily to perform repairs. They also report something that was unexpected: water plays a key role in the process, by regulating how long the donated electron stays inside the damage site before returning to the photolyase molecule.

Scientists believe that all placental mammals lost the ability to make this enzyme some 170 million years ago, says Zhong. That’s why humans, mice, and all other mammals are particularly vulnerable to cancercausing UV rays from the sun.

But the rest of the animal kingdom—insects, fish, birds, amphibians, marsupials, and even bacteria, viruses, and yeast—retain a greater ability to repair such damage.

Scientists knew that photolyase formed a tiny water-filled pocket to host the damage site within a cell nucleus, says Zhong. But until his latest series of experiments, nobody knew

how water affected the reaction.

As far as scientists can tell, photolyase’s only function is to repair DNA, and it’s very good at it. The enzyme harnesses energy from the visible portion of sunlight to repair UV damage in plants and animals with 90 percent efficiency.

Scientists would like to develop drugs that use photolyase’s mechanism to

repair UV damage in human skin, but they’ve had trouble with the first steps—replicating the photolyase reaction in the laboratory and fully understanding it. Zhong hopes his latest study will change that.

For the complete Ohio State news release, visit http:// researchnews.osu.edu/archive/ photorep.htm.

The enzyme photolyase uses energy from visible light to repair UV damage. This enzyme is missing in all mammals, including humans, although all plants and other animals have it.

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is wling ball rve as a bo eriment. se b o ts n a p particip f an ex Workshop om a bridge as part o fr d e p p ro d

Outreach

Modeling Physical Sciences Funded by the Ohio Board of Regents, this program is a unique partnership among Columbus Public Schools, Worthington City Schools, and the College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. The program includes a three-week “Modeling Workshop,” adapted from a highly successful, award-winning national program. Based on decades of research on teaching and learning, Modeling Workshops intensively train teachers in a flexible method of instruction that is effective with students at all grade levels and from any background, and is well-aligned with Ohio’s Science Standards. Effective and popular, these workshops not only show impressive gains in teachers’ understanding of physical science, but also in their own students’ performance back in the classroom.

“It’s been shown to work by pre- and post-testing students of teachers who get the training. It’s unique in that sense,” says Andrew Heckler, assistant professor of physics. “It’s one of the few [programs] that have actually been demonstrated to improve student learning.”

“This has been shown in a huge variety of schools, from private boarding schools to inner city schools to suburban schools,” says Kathleen Harper, senior lecturer in physics.

“It’s not something that works in just one particular kind of environment.”

Additional Saturday workshops throughout the school year reinforce techniques and allow teachers to build a closer network, strengthening relationships and creating a group for learning and sharing.

Two local high school teachers work together at the Modeling Workshop.

Assistant Professor Andrew Heckler runs a demonstration.

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Outreach

Physics on the Edge It all started with the enthusiastic physics demonstrations offered

by Linn Van Woerkom, associate professor of physics, during the annual Department of Physics Open House, (now a College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences Open House in conjunction with the College of Engineering). First, someone suggested videotaping the demonstrations and making them available for teachers’ use in the classroom. Then the idea went one step further—WOSU-TV got involved and a television series, Physics on the Edge, was developed. Targeting an audience of ninthgrade students, the program features live-action “extreme” demonstrations (e.g. dropping things from tall buildings, placing common household items in the microwave, etc.) designed to grab the viewer’s attention and then illustrate a particular physical principle or idea. Animated graphics further aid students’ understanding of the physics concepts presented, as well as

showcase the excitement and fun of science, demonstrate realworld applications of physical principles, and engage students in the concepts and process of science. In order to add value for K-12 science educators, program topics are aligned with the National Science Education standards and the learning benchmarks for the State of Ohio.

The pilot episode was completed during winter 2005 and premiered at a special showing at the Wexner Center Film/Video Theater in May. In addition to WOSU-TV, major partners include the Transportation Research Center, who donated four cars used in the demonstrations as well as the use of its testing facility; ACCAD, who donated that snappy graphic; COSI, who offered advice on the best way to reach our target audience; and ITSCO, who broadcast the program in September on WOSU-TV during an educational television block geared towards teachers and classrooms in central Ohio.

The pilot episode, “Wrecking Physics,” described kinetic energy and potential energy, using standard car collisions compared to dropping cars from a crane. In order to illustrate the ability to transform one form of energy into another, a skateboarding demonstration was featured.

Although only the first program is completed, the partners involved in the project hope to receive funding for an additional 12 episodes. Plans also include a multimedia dimension with special features available on DVD or a link to an interactive web site. Potential features include abbreviated demonstrations and more in-depth explanations of the science concepts, plus a collection of questions and/or self-assessment tools. Information will be presented in varying levels of complexity, from elementary school-level explanations to calculus-based derivations, allowing students to start at their level and build a more complete understanding of physical processes. In addition, teacher professional development workshops are planned to offer explanations of how to present the material to students.

Harold Whitt and Sylvia Schaepe conduct a physics demo at the Physics on the Edge premiere at the Wexner Center.

Professor Linn Van Woerkom welcomes the audience to the premiere of Physics on the Edge.

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Outreach

Physics Professor Turned Artist: Walter W. Wada Walter W. Wada came to Columbus in 1964 and retired as professor emeritus of Ohio State’s Department of Physics-Theoretical High Energy Particle Physics, in 1989.

He has been painting “three hours a week for the past sixty years.”

Since 1989, Wada has worked with “inspiring professors,” including former and current Department of Art professors Gilbert Hall, Robert Schwartz, Pheoris West, and Alan Crockett, and with Columbus Cultural Art Center teacher, Tracy Steinbrook. He has, as well, enjoyed the comments and criticism of Department of History of Art professor emeritus and former chair, Franklin Ludden.

Dr. Wada recently showed his work at the Columbus Cultural Art Center, and at Ohio State’s Hopkins Hall Gallery in the exhibition, Beyond 60, which highlighted the works of artists and writers taking classes through the Office of Continuing Education’s “Program 60.”

Professor Emeritus Walter Wada with a few of his paintings

Translating Solids: The Holographic Image The College of the Arts and College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences teamed up to present a lively exhibition of works by internationally acclaimed holography artists from February 28-March 16, 2005. Translating Solids: The Holographic Image filled Hopkins Hall Gallery on campus with works by artists from the United States, Europe, and Australia.

The show included holographic transmission and reflection mixed-media sculptures and three-dimensional images, according to Harris Kagan, professor of physics, who organized the exhibition along with Prudence Gill, gallery curator.

Artists exhibiting works included Larry Lieberman, Sam Moree, Ana Maria Nicholson, Doug Tyler, Scott Lloyd, and others.

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Experimental works produced by students and faculty in the Art/Physics Holography Lab at Ohio State were also featured, showcasing the success of this popular collaborative program between art and science.

A companion exhibition to Translating Solids called Viewing the Invisible appeared in Hopkins Hall Corridor. Viewing the Invisible was an exhibition of images created as byproducts of research in such disciplines as cognitive science, chemistry, medicine, engineering, physics, neurobiology, psychology, and ophthalmology, which reveal aspects of the “hidden worlds” unique to each discipline.

Outreach

Physics at the State Fair Members of Sigma Pi Sigma, Ohio State’s undergraduate physics honor society, are encouraging an interest in physics among the general public, especially children, through an outreach program called PHOTON (Physics Outreach to Our Neighbors). At the 2005 Ohio State Fair, the group worked with Ohio State Extension and provided handson physics demonstrations in the Lausche Building, where 4-H members from around the state gather with their projects. PHOTON arranged numerous experiments—from dropping balloons in liquid nitrogen to putting CDs in a microwave oven. Each experiment was attended by a physics student who encouraged children to get involved and ask questions. Ohio State’s Sigma Pi Sigma chapter was also recognized by the national organization for its outreach program. See http://www.sigmapisigma.org/osu_outreach. htm for the full story.

(above) Harold Whitt helps with the bed of nails demonstration. (insets) Kids and physics volunteers at the Ohio State fair

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Winter Party

2005 Physics Winter Party

From Einstein to Elvis In addition to the traditional food, fun, and dancing, the 2005 Physics Winter Party featured a special theme, “Elvis and Einstein.� On a more serious side, a new class of Sigma Pi Sigma members was inducted.

(above) The Elvis impersonators are physics graduate students Kerry Highbarger (left) and Becky Weber (right). (right) Physics chair William Saam and his wife Margie

(above) (back row, from left): Tom Lemberger, George Holinga, Megan Hashier, Rob Hobbins, Alex Hogan, Richard Furnstahl, Chris Roedig, Joe Ryan, Justin Wiser, William Saam, Tom Weisgarber (front row, from left): Joe Gartner, James Cryan, Austin Rau, Andy Courts, Zack Yoscovits, Kyle Metzroth (right) Megan Hashier accepts her Sigma Pi Sigma membership certificate from advisor Tom Lemberger.

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Members of the physics department dance the night away at the 2005 Winter Party.

Graduate Student and Alumni News

Ph.D. Graduates in the Department of Physics Winter 2005 Youngmin Kim

Advisor: Arthur Epstein “Optical Studies of the Change Localization and Delocalization in Conducting Polymers” Wesley Pirkle Advisor: Arthur Epstein “Nontraditional Architectures and Spin Processes in Organic Light Emitting Devices”

Spring 2005 Greg Arms Advisor: K.K. Gan “Study of I Lepton Decays to Four-Hadron Final States and First Observation of I- --} K- wv” Daniel Bibireata Advisor: Brian Winer “Super Yang-Mills Theories on the Lattice” Ivan Medvedev Advisor: Frank DeLucia “Submillimeter wave/th2 technology and rotational spectroscopy of several molecules of astrophysical interest” Patrick Randerson Advisor: Linn Van Woerkom “Fundamental Dynamics in High Intensity Laser Ionization”

Summer 2005 Anirban Bhattacharyya Advisor: Richard Furnstahl “Applicatoin of Effective Field Theory to Density Functional Theory for Finite Systems” Katharina Christandl Advisor: Gregory Lafyatis “Advancing Neutral Atom Quantum Computing: Studies of One-Dimensional and Two-Dimensional Optical Lattices on a Chip” Masaoki Kusunoki Advisor: Eric Braaten “Charm meson molecules and the X(3872)” Homeyra Sadaghiani Advisor: Lei Bao “Conceptual and Mathematical Barriers to Students Learning Quantum Mechanics”

Autumn 2005 Yaojun Du Advisor: John Wilkins “Dynamics of Si Small Point Deffects and Formation of Si Extended Structures” Dirk Hufnagel Advisor: Klaus Honscheid “Search for Cabibbo-Supressed D+ Meson Decays D+ ->PioPio and D+->K+Pio” Fang-Chi Hsu Advisor: Arthur Epstein “Electric Field Effect In ‘Metallic’ Polymers”

Dean Richard Freeman leads the Ohio State Men’s Glee Club at the 2005 MAPS Alumni Society Tailgate.

MAPS Alumni Society Marks a Successful First Year The College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MAPS) Alumni Society had a great 2005, its first full year of existence. In the past year, the society elected a board of governors, established a scholarship fund, and published a newsletter. Other 2005 milestones for the society included holding its first fund-raising event for the scholarship (a bowl-a-thon) and hosting its first student mentoring event (a dessert reception). Society members have also been active in recruiting high-achieving high school students. In September 2005, MAPS alumni joined other alumni from the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences at the 2nd Annual Arts and Sciences Alumni Society Tailgate. In 2006, the tailgate will be on Saturday, September 2, prior to the Ohio State vs. Northern Illinois football game. Another alumni event to watch out for is the MAPS Alumni Society Wine Tasting, which will be on Thursday, May 11, in the Physics Research Building atrium. Proceeds will benefit the alumni society scholarship.

The MAPS Alumni Society is off to a terrific start, but we are always looking for more alumni to get involved. If you are interested in mentoring or recruiting students, raising money for the society’s scholarship, or simply getting more information about the society, please contact Ben Lewis

at lewis.485@osu.edu

or (614) 688-4892,

or visit www.mps.

ohio-state. edu/ alumni.

The Ohio State Men’s Glee Club serenades Shirley DeLucia.

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Development Update

“I hope that the students who get these scholarships all have a great time in science and have good lives.”

Bunny C. and Thomas J. Clark Scholarship Drs. Bunny and Tom Clark have made a $100,000 gift to the Department of Physics to endow a scholarship that will support underrepresented students, with Tom and Bunny Clark an emphasis on women. The earned a Distinguished Service Award Bunny C. and Thomas J. Clark was chosen as one of the YWCA Women from the American Physical Society Scholarship will provide assistance to of Achievement in 1993 and was elected to Division of Nuclear Physics. undergraduate and graduate students in the Ohio Woman’s Hall of Fame in 1994.

She is a recipient of the Faculty Award physics.

She officially retired in September for Distinguished University Service, the “I hope that the students who get 2005 but remains very active in the University Distinguished Research Award, these scholarships all have a great time in Department of Physics and the physics the Rosalene Sedgwick Faculty Service science and have good lives,” says Bunny community at large. She earned her Ph.D. Award, and the University Distinguished Clark, Distinguished University Professor at Wayne State University and her B.S. and Affirmative Action Award. In addition, she in Physics. “It’s good that there are some M.S. degrees at Kansas State University. women in physics, both undergrad and grad. I want them to love physics and research.”

Bunny Clark has been part of the Physics Research Building Naming Opportunities Ohio State family since 1969, first as a research associate and scientist, then as a faculty member. She joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 1981 and just eight years later was named Distinguished University Professor.

She attributes much of her success to the guidance of Dr. Robert Herman, whom she worked for at General Motors Technical Labs from 1960-69. “Bob taught us to care about our work, to be honest, and to have high standards,” she says. “He opened the world to me and he changed my life.”

National recognition for Bunny Clark’s research expertise has included selection as an American Physical Society Fellow in 1984 and an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow in 1996. In 1999 she For more information, contact Nick Perlick, Development Officer College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences received the Fowler Award for Excellence

(614) 292-9135, perlick.1@osu.edu in Nuclear Physics from the Ohio Section of the American Physical Society. She also or visit www.physics.ohio-state.edu.

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Development Update

“It’s about finding people who want to make a difference in the lives of others and bringing them together with the programs they want to support.”

An Interview with Nick Perlick Raising funds for an organization such as The Ohio State University is a growing specialty field. At Ohio State, there are dozens of professionals dedicated to fostering relationships with people and organizations who want to support the university in any one of hundreds of programs and disciplines.

“I believe that university fund raising is really about making connections,” says Nick Perlick, senior development officer in the College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. “It’s about finding people who want to make a difference in the lives of others and bringing them together with the programs they want to support.”

Perlick brought his unique qualifications to Ohio State three years ago, after receiving his master’s degree in higher education administration from Florida

Building

$7,500,000

Laboratory Wing Research Facility $5,000,000

Faculty Wing Collegium $2,500,000

Atrium

$1,000,000

Clean Room $500,000

Department Meeting Room $500,000

Laboratory $250,000

Patio

$250,000

Conference Room $50,000

Faculty Office $25,000

"Each $25,000 endowed scholarship fund that we create generates $1,000 per year to scholarship recipients to help students with their educational expenses. Many potential donors might think that creating such a fund is out of their reach, not realizing that the commitment can be made over several years, for example, $5,000 per year for five years."

Director of Development Nick Perlick

State University. While an undergraduate student at Bethany College in West Virginia, he was active in undergraduate student government. “As a student leader, I had the opportunity to get to know administrators for Bethany,” he says. “They helped me to realize that working for a university is truly meaningful work. I recognized that the ultimate goal of everything we do is to change lives by educating young people.”

Perlick started at Ohio State in the Arts and Sciences development office in a newly created position referred to as “arts and sciences generalist.” “The generalist position was interesting because I had the opportunity to learn a little bit about each of the five colleges of Arts and Sciences,” he notes.

“But I am truly happy to be focused on the College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences and especially the Department of Physics.”

With a new building and growing undergraduate student population, there are multiple opportunities to connect philanthropists to programs in need of support. “I am really impressed by the physics students engaged in research while still at the undergraduate level,” Perlick says.

“Our dean (Richard R. Freeman) wants to establish funds that support students conducting research in labs. Our students often need to work part time to supplement their education. With these research funds, we would enable faculty to invite more undergraduate students into their labs and be able to pay the students a wage for their work.”

Many people outside the university do not realize the opportunity to support specific programs such as this. They are often under the mistaken impression that donations go into a general fund. “I want people to know that their support can directly benefit the important work being done in the Department of Physics,” he explains. For example, Perlick also is working with undergraduate student services in the college office to create an expanded scholarship program to recruit talented Ohio students to Ohio State.

“We have learned that even small scholarships make a huge difference in a student’s decision to attend a particular institution,” he says. “Too many students end up at other state schools because of a small scholarship even though Ohio State has the highest ranked physics program in the state. Each $25,000 endowed scholarship fund that we create generates $1,000 per year to scholarship recipients to help students with their educational expenses.

Many potential donors might think that creating such a fund is out of their reach, not realizing that the commitment can be made over several years, for example, $5,000 per year for five years.”

“The most important part of the process for me will be finding alumni and friends of the department who want to connect in a way that has meaning for them,” Perlick adds. “To help people engage in a way that is gratifying for them is what makes this job meaningful for me.”

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Physics Research Building Dedication

The Physics Research Building was officially dedicated on November 2, 2005, with an impressive ceremony that included physics demonstrations and building tours (not to mention confetti cannons!). Dedication attendees toured some of the building’s 210 laboratory modules, enjoyed a “Physics of Toys” demonstration, and saw a videoconferencing exhibition in the Smith Seminar Room. Speakers at the dedication included: Ohio State president Karen Holbrook, College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences dean Richard Freeman, science and technology advisor to the governor Frank Samuel, alumnus Robert Nordstrom, graduate student Rebecca

“It is better to know some of than all of the Weber, undergraduate student Tony Vincent, and physics chair William Saam.

The 233,739-square-foot building will provide an ideal arena in which to continue and expand the department’s tradition of offering research opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students. The design of the building emphasizes space devoted to interaction among members of the department. Those interaction areas include the Robert Smith Seminar Room, the Vernier Physics Commons, and the wide bridges that span the north and south sides of the atrium—connecting the laboratory and office wings, as well as the faculty conference room.

The following are excerpts from Frank Samuel’s speech:

“Today, we are here to celebrate another impressive symbol of the quest for knowledge. And it is indeed impressive: the complexity—mostly hidden—of its design; the hard work—mostly completed—of its construction; the multiplicity—mostly yet to be invented—of its uses. But there is a danger in our celebration of this, literally, concrete building. The danger is that we will confuse means with ends—that we will conclude that the knowledge that is embodied in this physical structure is more important than the imagination that conceived it. Because I suppose that we all do, or can, or should agree with Einstein that, ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge.’”

“The important point of our funding, and of this building, is not the knowledge that it represents, but the imagination that it should encourage and reward. So while we congratulate the architects and builders on this concrete achievement, let us see their achievement as a means, not an end— a means to encourage the human imagination to run free to explore afresh and to connect anew.”

“Let me close by returning to this building and its significance. Yes, we should take pride in it as a concrete achievement. But we should do more. We should celebrate it as helping to create the conditions for the ceaseless, seething, questing turmoil that is scientific curiosity at work. Or to put it another way, if we think of this building as an answer based on knowledge, we will be misled as to its true importance.”

“I believe that all answers are ultimately boring. And, as Dorothy Parker said: ‘The cure for boredom is curiosity and there is no cure for curiosity.’ James Thurber, Ohio State’s one-time neighbor, put it this way: ‘It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.’”

“I have high confidence that you will put this building to good use as the means to asking more and more questions and discarding more and more answers.”

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Physics Research Building Dedication

the questions answers.”

— James Thurber

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